Hollywood Renaissance Noir, 1969–1979

Abstract

A group of directors, different than those of the Transitional Noir, redefined Hollywood in the 1970s and created a distinct neo-noir movement in the process. Many of the directors, like Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, or Robert Altman, dabbled in noir as they moved through and destabilized multiple genres. These directors knew the dark side of cinema, as many of them were film students or had worked their way up through television. Their reaction to the 1970s intermingles with their reaction to noir cinema, forming their neo-noir movement. The Driver (Walter Hill 1978) offers one approach by recreating noir within the 1970s. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman 1973) redefines noir by overtly manipulating genre tropes to fit the 1970s.

Appendix

Hollywood Renaissance Noir Film List

Redefined Neo-Noir

• Klute (1971), d. Alan J. Pakula

• The Anderson Tapes (1971), d. Sidney Lumet

• The Long Goodbye (1973), d. Robert Altman (Raymond Chandler novel adaptation)

• Mean Streets (1973), d. Martin Scorsese

• The Conversation (1974), d. Francis Ford Coppola (original screenplay by Coppola)

• The Parallax View (1974), d. Alan J. Pakula

• Night Moves (1975), d. Arthur Penn

• Taxi Driver (1976), d. Martin Scorsese (original screenplay by Paul Schrader)

• The Late Show (1977), d. Robert Benton (original screenplay by Benton)

• Who’ll Stop the Rain (1978), d. Karel Reisz

Recreated Neo-Noir

• The Getaway (1972), d. Sam Peckinpah (Jim Thompson novel adaptation by Walter Hill)

• Vanishing Point (1971), d. Richard C. Sarafian

• Prime Cut (1972), d. Michael Ritchie

• The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), d. Peter Yates

• Death Wish (1974), d. Michael Winner

• Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), d. Sam Peckinpah

• The Outfit (1974), d. John Flynn (adaptation of a Richard Stark “Parker” novel by Flynn)

• Busting (1974), d. Peter Hyams (original screenplay by Hyams)

• The Yakuza (1974), d. Sydney Pollack (original screenplay by Paul Schrader, rewrites by Robert Towne)

• Hustle (1975), d. Robert Aldrich

• The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), d. John Cassavetes (original screenplay by Cassavetes)

• Rolling Thunder (1977), d. John Flynn (original screenplay by Paul Schrader)

• Straight Time (1978), d. Ulu Grosbard

• The Driver (1978), d. Walter Hill (original screenplay by Hill)

• Hardcore (1979), d. Paul Schrader (original screenplay by Schrader)

Notes on the Lists

While Taxi Driver has all the markings of modern B-movie, it transcends the Recreation category. Martin Scorsese’s direction, faithful to Schrader’s script, elevates the material to a level of art cinema. The directorial technique, De Niro’s performance, the look of the violence, and much more effectively redefine the genre in which it works—neo-noir. Paul Schrader’s other films, both as a screenwriter and director, Rolling Thunder and Hardcore in particular, fall into the Recreation category. Rolling Thunder for the purity of its B-movie qualities (similar material to Taxi Driver but without the transcendence). Hardcore, despite its risqué subject matter, enacts traditional tropes with its every-man hero saving the girl plot lifted out of The Searchers (much more apparent than Taxi Driver and much less violent). Note, too, in Schrader’s writing and directing, these films contain a clear “noir decision.”

Some of these films barely qualify as noir. Consider films like The Outfit and Prime Cut, which focus on professional bad guys, who are hired to do a job that typically doesn’t go as planned. They react as professionals, not as someone going over to the “dark side.” The good bad guy, to me, acting as a professional diffuses the noir quality. They owe more to the crime film genre than they do to neo-noir.

Notice, too, that the Redefine Noirs all qualify as A-movies. And the Recreate Noirs generally work as B-movies .